As a child, Luca Schmidt was a really good chess player and even competed in the state championships. But he’s really gotten into the sidecar scene. Yesterday, the 20-year-old passenger from Zeulenroda not only secured another World Championship victory in the sidecar of Swiss rider Markus Schlosser, but also took the World Championship lead alongside him at Le Mans. It’s a stroke of luck, but there’s no denying that it also holds a certain significance for the future. We spoke with Schmidt after the World Championship opener.
You usually race with Patrick Werkstetter on the Sattler Motorsport team. What happened?
“My mom picked me up from work last week after my night shift, and we drove straight from the gas station in Schleiz, where I work, to Le Mans. We drove nonstop and it took us 16 hours. At some point, my co-driver Patrick called me and said he wasn’t coming. He had a stomach virus. At first I thought it couldn’t be that bad if he couldn’t drive, but he was throwing up and having diarrhea. By that point we were already near Paris, and it was only about 200 kilometers to Le Mans. So we decided to keep driving and at least watch the World Championship opener as spectators.”
In hindsight, that was a good decision. But were you able to just switch teams and boats to join Markus Schlosser like that?
“Marcel Fries had stepped down as Markus’s co-driver. My team manager, Josef Sattler, gave me the go-ahead. So I called Patrick. He wished me good luck and told me to have fun. As always, I had my three suits with me.”
What would you do if Markus Schlosser asked you to race in the World Championship round at the Sachsenring in two weeks?
“I don’t know. That’s way over my head. I went to Le Mans as a spectator and left as the World Championship leader. Markus had actually gone there just for fun and hadn’t given a complete season a second thought, let alone sponsors. None of that had even been on the table until then.”
You’re part of the Sattler Motorsport team. What does that mean to you?
“We have a very close relationship. I’ve been driving for the team for four years, and Sepp is like the grandfather I never had. I’m his ‘boy.’ I get to drive for the team without having to put up any of my own money.”
